Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), will brief the Press on 2 October 2013 at 11:30 am in the Business Hall of Ria Novosti, the Russian News & Information Agency. See Ria Novosti’s announcement in Russian.

The Press Conference comes during Zerbo’s visit to Russia from 1 to 4 October 2013, for meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM. It is expected that Zerbo will brief the media on the latest status of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and activities to bring the Treaty into force, as well as the Treaty’s monitoring system which is designed to detect any nuclear explosion: underground, in the atmosphere and underwater. That includes the detection of the nuclear test announced by North Korea in February this year and the role that CTBTO stations in Russia played. Zerbo will also speak about the possibilities of using CTBT data to monitor natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes.

BackgroundThe CTBT bans all nuclear explosions. 183 States have signed the Treaty of which 161 have now also ratified it. A worldwide monitoring system known as the International Monitoring System (IMS) is being built to ensure that no nuclear explosion will go undetected. Russia is one of three nuclear weapon States to have ratified the Treaty. With 32 IMS facilities to be constructed in Russia, it will be one of the largest host countries within the IMS. When complete, the IMS will comprise 337 facilities to monitor underground, the oceans and the atmosphere for any sign of a nuclear explosion. Over 85% of this system has already been established and is sending data to the CTBTO’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, for processing, analysis, and distribution to signatory States.

For further information on the CTBT, please see www.ctbto.org – your resource on ending nuclear testing, or contact: